Doing Christmas differently this year...Jotham's Journey &Tabitha's Travels

We are doing Christmas differently in so many ways this year!   As I mentioned before, we have been very blessed by the free Jesse Tree devotionals by Anne Voscamp  and our evenings before bed have been special times of closeness as we have been snuggling up and reading these wonderful books by Arthur Ytreeide.

For the first time, we are reading thru Jotham's Journey and also Tabitha's travels.  I had heard of these books for years and this year decided to get both thinking that both my son and daughter would be able to relate....and they do...we all do.

Each book has one chapter a night for every night of Advent and at the end of each chapter, there is a "cliffhanger"....and a short, but very clear devotional with scripture pertaining to that chapter.  We've been blessed with discussions about God's love, forgiveness, provision, protection, the consequences of sin...anger, disobedience vs. making a mistake, grace and mercy....my little ones can't wait, each night to snuggle in and read these devotion stories.  Focusing on unit studies of the names of Jesus, Christmas hymns and carols, Christmas symbols, our Advent wreath and devotional stories...talking about giving and accepting the greatest gift of all...that is what our Advent season leading up to the Joy of Christmas is about this year!  (it is so hard, in todays world, to 'block out' commercialism and materialism...so hard as a parent to help 're-focus' our children on WHY we're celebrating Christmas)

I would love to hear any ideas of how you might be 'doing Christmas' differently this year.  Peace and Grace to you on this rainy, dark December day!  ~Sue~